My lousy 8 ball break, crap!

[tim913]

A lot of times people are trying to retain good form..... stance, alignment, etc when performing a power break, just like they do when performing their normal shots. Throw all that out the window. I found that a variation of the cut break, with a little firmer stroke yields the best results for me. I try to make a ball while bringing the CB, and 1 ball towards me on the same end of the table. This takes a lot of practice, and is used for 9 ball. When I was into power breaking I would bend my front elbow more, grip the cue farther up the butt towards the shaft to generate more speed, and my bridge hand would be at least 6 inches farther away from the CB than a normal shot. At contact with the CB my stroking arm was no where near perpendicular to the floor as on a normal shot. I was totally past that point with my body in motion at the moment of contact. I would then follow through with my arm, body, head, and whatever else wanted to jump on the train...trying to explode the rack, and squat the CB in the middle of the table.

Sometimes just moving your grip, increasing cueing distance, bending front elbow, adjusting feet for leverage to throw body forward makes all the difference, but none of it will matter if you can't hit the lead ball SQUARE..CB can't go left or right after contact, all the power is generated to the rack...CB just dies.

Practice with just one ball on the spot, hit it and focus on stopping the CB right there. Increase your power/speed gradually while still focusing on a square hit..once you get good at that add the rest of the rack, and your body and bust them...good luck!

 

[Shannon.spronk]

I used to be terrible at breaking 8 ball. I would try to hit it as hard as possible. Half the time the cue ball did not even stay on the table. That was several years ago. Now I have a fairly good break. So what happened in the last few years? Well about a year ago I started practicing my break shot exclusively. Rack them and break them, rack them and break them. I made minor adjustments to see what worked and what did not. I worked from different areas of the table. I did it over and over again.

There were multiple benefits to doing this. I found that at times a nearly straight on high power break works for me and other times a lower speed cut break works better. Depending on what exactly is happening with my break I can make adjustments because I learned all of this by doing and I learned just what little things create which scenarios to play out. So my advice is really nothing other than go break and break and break. Make the adjustments and break and break and break.

This is also a great place to look to for break advice.

http://billiards.colostate.edu/threads/break.html

 

[Mr. Wiggles]

Breaking bad!

My 8 ball break sucks. I have watched the pros and read about it and study it. I have broke from all over the table at different speeds. I have hit he head ball and the second ball. Angled breaks and head on breaks. It still sucks and over half the time a ball does not fall in. I have a Diveney jump/break cue with a Samsara tip. It is not the cue, just me.

The most important part of breaking is to make a ball and get going. Are you a run out player? If you are near pro level then yes your break is critical. For the rest of the world, we want to pocket a ball on the break and hold the table/ maybe even run out. Breaking hard and getting a real nice spread with no balls in trouble is great if you run out. What if you dont make a ball? You just gave your opp a great table to run out. I only break hard against less skilled players as I feel they will need several trips to the table to get out. My go to break is about half speed or less, second ball pocketing a wing ball. I am also in a rare club in the pool world. I like a F@/&$- table !!! I may not run out but you won't either. Everyone will work hard. I like a long game, and play better defense than most of my ooponents. Take care of whitey, don't let whitey take a drink (scratch). It's a journey, enjoy! Listen to everyone and divide by five! I speak of eight ball by the way. 9 ball break hard of course.

 

[bflgvs]

My 8 ball break sucks. I have watched the pros and read about it and study it. I have broke from all over the table at different speeds. I have hit he head ball and the second ball. Angled breaks and head on breaks. It still sucks and over half the time a ball does not fall in. I have a Diveney jump/break cue with a Samsara tip. It is not the cue, just me.

See if you can absorb this video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW1tsONEI_U&feature=related

 

[KRJ]

I don't know, but I'm not thinking 50% qualifies for the "crappy break" category. now, it is not world class, mind you, but geez, I know a few guys that might kill for fifty. Can it get better, absolutely... but at least you are not starting from zero, you're at 50% already

 

[RioSevario]

It depends on how I am breaking them. I normally break one diamond from side rail and a little above one diamond from head rail. If I am not making balls I switch from my breaking cue to a spare shaft with a Kamui tip. That allows me to hit the cue ball with a little low outside english. I break at about 80% speed and aim for second ball with as full a hit as possible. Normally make 1 or more balls with this break. But there is also normally a cluster or two to deal with.

As with anything else in your game this will take practice. As with 9-ball break practice make note of ball placement before the break and final layout after break. Good luck

 

[hang-the-9]

When we started playing in the APA I met an 82 y/o lady. She walked to the table swings her cue in slow motion the cue ball rolls it takes for ever for it to hit the rack... It's a clean hit she breaks the rack and in slow motion each ball rolls and rolls and rolls until finally they stop and the entire rack is blown apart. The whole thing took an eternity and every time she broke it was the same. Slow soft but she hit the cue ball dead on and that cue ball hit the rack perfect and it took for freaking ever. It was the weirdest thing to watch. A few weeks later she retired.

Point is, if an 82 year old lady about to retire from her career in pool can do an amazing break every time. So can you, best I take tell you, hit the dead on to where ever you want to hit the rack

That break can only happen on a tight rack with a fast table.

If you try to "slow roll" a break on most tables with most racks, you will have 2 balls leave the rack area. Especially tables that the APA tends to play on which are unlevel bar tables with dirty and odd sized balls.